Incentives

Property Assessed Clean Energy Program (PACE)PACE financing allows property owners to fund energy efficiency, water efficiency and renewable energy projects with no up-front costs. PACE financing provides up to 100% financing of their qualified projects which can be paid back over time as a voluntary property tax assessment through their existing property tax bill. It allows up to 20% of a property’s value to be financed for energy efficiency, renewable energy, or water conservation upgrades. The financing creates an assessment lien on the property and is repaid as semi-annual installments on the property tax bill. Figtree Financing and California First Energy Financing provide PACE financing for commercial properties located in the City of Poway. For more information, visit the City’s website at www.poway.org/632/Property-Assessed-Clean-Energy-PACE-Prog.

Manufacturers Sales Tax ExemptionManufacturers and certain research and developers may now obtain a partial exemption of sales and use tax on certain manufacturing and research and development equipment purchases through the State of California Manufacturing Exemption program. The Program, administered by the State of California’s Board of Equalization, provides qualified businesses a 4.19% sales and use tax exemption, for qualified purposes (4.19% is from the State’s portion of sales tax). Generally, the Program includes businesses engaged in all forms of manufacturing, research and development in biotechnology, research and development in the physical, engineering and life sciences, and food processing. The sales and use tax exemption can also be applied to construction contracts that will use the items purchased as an integral part of the manufacturing, processing, refining, fabricating or recycling processes, or as a research or storage facility in connection with those processes. More information is available at the Board of Equalization web site www.boe.ca.gov/sutax/manufacturing_exemptions.htm.California Competes Tax Credits The State of California also administers the California Competes Tax Credit. This program is different from the “Manufacturers Exemption” program. All industries can apply for the tax credits. There are no geographic or sector-specific restrictions. The purpose of the California Competes Tax Credit is to attract and retain high-value employers in California in industries with high economic multipliers and that provide their employees good wages and benefits. More information can be found at: www.business.ca.gov/Programs/CaliforniaCompetesTaxCredit.aspx

Predevelopment MeetingsBusinesses planning to establish or expand their facilities in Poway may arrange a pre-development meeting with Development Services staff to better understand City requirements for specific sites. This may help identify potential challenges, or efficiencies – doing so during the project design phase can save time, effort, and money, in the long run. More information is available at the Development Services Department (858) 668-4600.

Site Selection Assistance - PickPoway.comPickPoway.com is Poway’s customized site selection website designed to help businesses find locations in the City of Poway that best suit their needs. It does this by providing businesses with all the tools they need to evaluate a potential location for their business before making major investments in property, equipment and staff. Pickpoway.com is available at no cost for use by anyone with internet access and does not require creating an account of any sort. It is available online, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Visit www.pickpoway.com to find the right location for your business.

Industrial Development Bond FinancingIndustrial Development Bonds (IDBs) are available as a business resource through the City of Poway. IDBs provide manufacturing and processing companies low-cost, low-interest financing for capital expenditures. Eligible capital expenditures include the acquisition of land, building construction, building renovation and the purchase of machinery and equipment. IDBs are conduit tax-exempt and taxable bond financings for private business at tax exempt rates for certain types of projects and improvements. The term of IDBs can be structured for 10 to 15 years, which can help ease the burden of debt service payments. IDBs are limited to a maximum amount of $20 million. To issue IDBs the City of Poway works with the California Enterprise Development Authority (www.ceda.caled.org), California Municipal Finance Authority (www.cmfa-ca.com), and California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank (www.ibank.ca.gov). The project financed by the bonds must be a facility used for the manufacturing, production or processing of tangible property (including the processing resulting in the change of such property). No more than 25 percent of the bond proceeds can be applied to ancillary office, warehouse or other space.

3 Day Express PermitsThe City of Poway offers Express Plan Check turnaround times for certain types of building permit applications. These are typically building permits that are not complex and do not have many issues associated with them, and include commercial and industrial tenant improvements less than 2,500 square feet. The expedited turnaround times for these building permits will be 1-3 days (depending on the permit type) instead of the normal 10-day turnaround for all other building permits. To qualify for the reduced turnaround time, a building permit application must be submitted to the City by 11:00 AM on any given day and it will be returned by the end of the day one, two or three business days later. A list of the building permits and associated reduced turnaround times can be found on the Development Services web page at www.poway.org or by calling the Development Services Department at (858) 668-4600.California Research & Development Tax Credit
Corporate income tax credits are available to companies that have incurred qualified research expenses in California. A taxpayer qualifies for the credit if it paid or incurred qualified research expenses while conducting qualified research in California. The taxpayer may receive up to 15 percent of the excess of current year research expenditures over a computed base amount. More information is available at the Franchise Tax Board website https://www.ftb.ca.gov/businesses/credits/rd/.
California’s Film and Television Tax Credit Program 2.0
Aimed at retaining and attracting production jobs and economic activity across the state, the California Film Commission’s Film and TV Tax Credit Program 2.0 provides incentives for a wide range of project types including big-budget feature films, TV pilots and 1-hr TV series for any distribution outlet. The California Film Commission supports productions of all sizes and budgets, and focuses on activities that stimulate and preserve production spending, jobs and tax revenues in California. Services include administration of the state's Film & Television Tax Credit Program, an extensive digital location library, location assistance and a range of other production related resources and assistance. More information is available at http://www.film.ca.gov.
Employment Training PanelThe California Employment Training Panel offers a cash reimbursement for training cost incurred by employers set by a pre-determined two-year performance based contract. Contracts vary based on number of employees enrolled, hours of training, training material and employee wages. More information can be found at the Employment Training Panel website http://www.etp.ca.gov/.Pollution Control Tax-Exempt Bond Financing Program
The California State Treasurer offers private activity tax-exempt bond financing to California businesses for the acquisition, construction, or installation of qualified pollution control, waste disposal, waste recovery facilities, and the acquisition and installation of new equipment. More information can be found at the State Treasurer’s website http://www.treasurer.ca.gov/cpcfa/bondfinancing.asp.

California Capital Access Program
The California Capital Access Program (CalCAP), administered by the California State Treasurer’s Office, encourages participating banks and lending institutions to provide loans to small businesses that fall outside of conventional underwriting standards. Small business owners that have difficulty in obtaining conventional financing may qualify for a CalCAP loan through any CalCAP lender. More information can be found at the State Treasurer’s website http://www.treasurer.ca.gov/cpcfa/calcap/sb/index.asp.